Burstyn tank of 1912 with trench crossing legs

[ct ertz]

This is my next project for strange of rear armored fighting vehicles. The idea was for the light cannon and machine guns to support advancing infantry. the tank also had four legs with motorized wheels to help it cross ditches or trenches. The scale will be about 1/72 scale. I am not sure if this one was ever built. The cattapiller tracks seam nerrow and light for a tank but in 1912 this would have been kind of advanced I would think. Any input you armor guys can give would be wonderful.

[NStarkel]

Cool vehicle!

[charleswlkr54]

That one just might have been able to be made to work, though. Of cousre dropping facnies ito the trenches as the British did is a lot simpler a solution!

[charleswlkr54]

But in 1912, seems to me nobody had any real idea what trench warfare would be like, now that I think of it, so whoever designed this may have been thinking ahead and advanced for his time.

[ct ertz]

Yep, I think he was ahead of his time. Here is the hull and turret. I am working on the tracks and suspension now. I think this was a three person tank. Although, it is just over six feet high from ground to top, and 11 feet long. it would have been cramped, and I guess the turret was hand cranked around.

[Gerald43]

Thank you that you are dealing with the WW I tanks!

[ct ertz]

Gerald, you are sure welcome.
Here is a couple of shots of the basic tank. Quite small. Next I will add the trench legs and hydraulics.

[cjwalas]

This will definitely be an interesting one to watch coming together. An odd tank by any standard. You've got a great little collection of unique WWI armor forming. GREAT!
Chris

[CharlieC]

The Burstyn tank was only ever a proposal which eventually was turned down by the Austro-Hungarian Army. Although the tank had some ideas which may have lead to a usable vehicle it would have taken a serious development effort. There seems to be a lot of hype around Burstyn's proposals - there is a thread on the Landships forum (Burstyn Tank (Again) - Landships WW1 Forum) which tries to look objectively at Burstyn's ideas.

There is a replica of the Burstyn tank which has recently been displayed at the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum in Vienna (just can't find an image of the replica)

I think the 1912 de Mole tank was much closer to a usable design - might be biased though - de Mole was an Australian.

Regards,

Charlie

[ct ertz]

I guess I fall into the camp of "ditch those silly arms". that was actually what I was thinking when I got the hull done. wow, it looks like a little tank.

That being said, I do like the sort of War of the world arm design just because it is strange.

CT